Cllr Shelagh Finlay ERYC & Bridlington Town Council

About Me

I am an East Riding of Yorkshire and Bridlington Town Councillor elected to represent Bridlington South Ward. The views and posts on this site are my personal views and are not those of East Riding of Yorkshire Council or Bridlington Town Council. If you become a member of this Blog I will expect you to adhere to posting comments that are not offensive or illegal.

Saturday, 18 November 2017

An excellent workshop was organised by East Yorkshire CLP Women's Officer today in Driffield. My presentation:

Event – CLP Life as a Councillor

To become
a councillor of a town or parish council or of East Riding of Yorkshire Council
you must:

be 18 years of age or over
and on the electoral register of the local authority that you wish to
stand for

have worked in the area for
the past 12 months or more

have occupied land in the
area, either as an owner or tenant, for 12 months or more.

To assess
whether you fit the criteria to become a councillor, please refer to the Local
Government Act 1972, which outlines the qualification details in full.

Wards

The East Riding is divided into 26 wards, each of which is represented by
one, two or three elected councillors. These councillors form part of East
Riding of Yorkshire Council and make decisions for the whole of the East
Riding.

Parishes

Each ward is divided up into a number of parishes. Each parish has a parish
or town council which is made up of a number of parish councillors who
represent the views of their parish and made local decisions.

Councillors
act as the link between the public and the council they are elected to serve.
Much of a councillor’s time is spent dealing with any problems and questions
from their local community. Councillors play an important role in planning,
running, monitoring, and developing council business.

Councillors
work to improve the quality of life for people within their area and make
decisions about local issues. They have to decide what is in the public
interest among a range of conflicting issues and views. Councillors usually
represent a political party, however, they can be independent. All councillors
represent all the citizens in their ward or parish, not just the people who
voted for them.

The full council (a meeting of all ward councillors) is the strategic body,
responsible for all decisions and oversees all of the work of the council, more
information on the council page.

The day to day decision making is undertaken by a number of committees made
up of a number of ward councillors. The Cabinet makes most of the day-to-day
decisions whilst other committees have specific decision making powers for
things such as planning applications, taxi licenses, licensed premises and
education appeals. Decisions are therefore made by a whole committee of elected
councillors. No individual councillor has any decision making authority.

Women make up half of Labour’s
membership, but are absent from leadership positions across our party. It’s
time to deliver the rule change and culture change we need to ensure Labour
women can lead.

Although women make up just under half of Labour’s
membership and 43% of Labour MPs, they are just 30% of CLP Chairs, 16% of
Labour council leaders, and 0% of Labour’s leadership team. To tackle this
leadership gap, Labour must urgently change its rules and its culture. That is
why LWN is:

- Calling on our leader to implement his #leadforwomen
promises to us. These include rule changes to ensure 50:50 representation on
every party committee (including the shadow cabinet), continued support for
positive action, the publication of diversity data, and, a guaranteed place for
a woman in Labour’s leadership team the next time there are elections.

- Asking all Labour members to
pledge to share their power by taking the #powerpledge. By taking the pledge, party members can
help improve our party from the grassroots up.

- Running training for Labour women across the UK. From our
local workshops, to our local government leadership training, we are playing
our part to ensure all Labour women are equipped with the skills they need.

Foundation
Day

Our
Foundation Day is ideal for women who may want to think about going into public
life, but aren't yet ready for our residential Aspiring Candidates' course.

Because we
want to make sure every woman can benefit from our training, we have developed
our Foundation Day to cover all the basics and provide an excellent grounding
for women at all stages of political development.

Delivered to
the same gold-standard as our Parliamentary training, the Foundation Day will
cover;

policy-making
and party structures;

selection
procedures and how they work;

political
life planning and development.

Places on
each day are limited and all our volunteer trainers are knowledgeable and
experienced.

To apply,
you need to have been a member of the Labour Party for at least one year
(although this is waivable at LWN 's discretion), and be or become a member of
LWN. You can find out more about us here, or go straight to the joining page here.

This course
is heavily subsidised by LWN members, which means that we are able to keep the
fee down to just £20. This needs to be paid at least 48 hours before the
day of the course.

Foundation
Days will run from 10.00 am to 5pm, and are planned for the following
locations:

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

That this
Council, in the interests of the residents of the East Riding, agrees to write
to Northern Rail requesting that they retain train guards on board every
northern train.

Comments from Councillors Moore & Finlay

At the moment,
guards are “safety-critical staff”.They
are responsible for checking the doors prior to departure and generally keeping
the train and the passengers safe;staying in touch with the control room; and
standing ready to respond to alarm calls from passengers or the driver.Current attempts to reduce the hours, and
duties, of platform and ticket office staff means your late night journey home
is ever more likely to be a lonely one, with no-one to help you if you are in
difficulty, lost, or threatened and no-one to notice if you need help.This is a prospect, as a lone, female
traveller, I do not look forward to.

Safety critical
conductors also take on the emergency protection duties of the Train Driver
should the driver become incapacitated in the event of an incident.

Case Study

On 26 July 1986
at Lockington, between Beverley and Driffield, a four coach unit, travelling
from Bridlington to Hull, collided with a motor vehicle on Lockington level
crossing.The train was completely
derailed and seriously damaged.Nine
people were killed and 59 people were hospitalised.The driver of the train was seriously
incapacitated and trapped with the cab.

The guard on
this train was uninjured and, having a comprehensive knowledge of the Hull to
Scarborough line and being fully trained to deal with such issues, jumped from
the train and made his way to check on the driver who, he found, was
unconscious.

The guard was
also aware that another train was shortly due, in the opposite direction, for
Bridlington.

Owing to the
derailed train being foul of the opposite line, he knew it was imperative that
he halt the oncoming train, so he ran down the track and managed to stop the
Bridlington bound train, which was approaching at speed.The driver saw the danger signals from this
guard and managed to stop his train just short of the derailed unit, thus
preventing what would have been a huge loss of life; there were approximately
120 people on the train.

In conclusion,
without the expertise, knowledge and quick thinking of this guard there would
have been a catastrophe of huge magnitude, which is precisely why there is a
need for a guardon every train.

After all these
years this railway line is still operating, and the same conditions exist at
Lockington as they did that fateful day.

Summary

Driver-only
train operation is being spun as modern and safe, but beneath the spin it is
nothing more than a money-saving attack on everyone’s safety.Let us all fight to retain our guards.Any saving will not be passed on to the
travelling public. Please support the Motion.

Unfortunately
the ruling Conservative Group did not think that this subject warranted
discussion, or a letter to Northern Rail.Instead it referred the whole matter to a
scrutiny committee, without discussion.Due to the huge majority it holds on the Council this was passed, much
to the disappointment of the Labour Group, whose whole objective was to protect
the safety of residents.

Thursday, 13 October 2016

Fair
Transitional State Pension Arrangements

Labour
Group Member, Cllr Shelagh Finlay, moved the following Motion to Full Council
today (12 October), seconded by Cllr Keith Moore.

“That this Council calls upon the Government to make fair transitional
state pension arrangements for all women born on, or after, 6 April 1951, who
have unfairly borne the burden of the increase to the State Pension Age (SPA)
with lack of appropriate notification.”

The
following Amendment was submitted by Cllr Parnaby and was voted on, and passed,
by Full Council with the exception of the words ‘or influence’ which was
removed at Cllr Finlay’s request.

“That this Council, whilst recognising
it has no control or influence over
national government policy on state pensions, has sympathy with those affected
by any increase to the State Pension Age and encourages members either
individually, through political groups, local MPs or national contacts to raise
any issues of unfairness they may have in regard to the State Pension Age
(SPA).”

At
Full Council, over 25 WASPIs from around the region came to offer their support
and were pleased that Members of East Riding of Yorkshire Council were prompted
to raise issues of unfairness.

Wednesday, 28 October 2015

Yesterday was a game of two halves. Let me give you a flavour of the second half. I went to Bridlington Hospital for my pre-assessment for a minor operation. This process saves time on the day of operation whilst ensuring that the patient is able to undertake the operation - a double saving. I was called in for my assessment by two very friendly NHS staff who introduced themselves. One asked and answered questions whilst the other took bloods, blood pressure etc. Both were very professional and knowledgeable whilst putting me at ease. The whole process took about 25 minutes and as I left clutching an information booklet they told me they would see me on the ward. I felt that they would both be my new best friends who would look after me on the day. So a satisfied customer of our wonderful NHS then - well not quite.

Let's have a look at the first half. I follow a series of signs that lead me into a rather sterile waiting room. A radio is playing, lots of leaflets (none of them relevant to my operation), out of date magazines and one other person. Time 10 am and another person arrives. Time 10.10 and the first person is call. Time 10.35 and the second person is call. I ask the nurse why I am still here when my appointment clearly says 10 am (I was on time) to be told that all the appointments were for 10 am and I was next in say 25 minutes. So rather than book one at 10 am, one at 10.25 and one at 10.50 I was expected to sit there for possibly 50 min and wait. I fumed as I read the out of date magazine "glad" that I had paid for 2 hour parking (£2.50) rather than the hour (£1 - not sure how that works but that is for another day). Time 10.50 and in I go for the second half - perfect from then on as described above.

How difficult is it to schedule 3 patients at staggered times? Why does the NHS think that their time is more important than mine? Would any business schedule 3 clients at the same time and expect the last one just to wait?